Your Gifts at Work

As a chemistry major, Emily Ruff ’09 studies what happens when you combine different elements. As resident of Dixon House, she can also tell you what happens when you combine six Carleton minds under one roof.

While some students spend their summers waiting tables or painting houses, psychology major Jedda Foreman ’08 (Bolinas, Calif.) has broadened her worldview through three distinct international experiences: Learning about Jewish history firsthand in the Czech Republic, caring for children in a Ghanaian orphanage, and helping Indian teenagers refine their English-speaking skills. Each experience impacted her deeply and is helping her plan her future.

Andrea designed a special major in narrative arts to combine her dual passions for the written word and the drawn image, and she has studied writers and artists who have done the same, including Blake, Wordsworth, and the pre-Raphaelites. “I’ve tried to make explicit connections between the mind’s eye and the eye of the beholder as it translates into words or visual imagery,” she says.

Brookes is helping to plan this year’s Midwinter Ball, “A (K)night Among the Stars,” the social event of winter term at Carleton. “It’s a formal dance, but it’s Carleton formal,” Brookes says. “One year I watched a guy in a tuxedo enter with his girlfriend, who was wearing a ball gown. The next two through the door were both wearing swimsuits.”

Nick is one of 19 students who traveled to Biloxi, Mississippi, last winter break to help in cleaning up the Hurricane Katrina–devastated region. While stripping and mucking out damaged houses, he was particularly struck by the overwhelming feeling of emptiness in the once-vibrant coastal town.

“We couldn’t be sure that everything we were doing was making a difference—some of the houses we worked on did eventually get demolished. But if you want to change the world, you have to make small dents in it and we made a few dents. Just as important, I think it was helpful for the people in Biloxi to see that we care.”

Art has always been a central part of Linh Trieu's '00 life, but until she came to Carleton, she didn't consider it anything more than a hobby. She spent her first two years at Carleton in a state of uncertainty, not sure that her chosen major, biology, was her true calling.

Some of senior Aisha Bierma's most meaningful Carleton experiences have come when she hasn't even been on campus. Bierma, a political science major, completed a fellowship in New Zealand and has studied off campus twice, experiences she credits with helping define her life's goals.

When Sujan Rajbhandary '04 came to campus last September, it was the first time he had been outside of Nepal. "It was a very big thing for me," he says, "I was scared to leave home for such a long time."